Storm looking to spook Steelers

Photo: Mark Ferris

Halloween night in Manchester sees the Storm host the Sheffield Steelers on Friday night with a ghoulish two points on offer in the Premier Sports Challenge Cup.

After a difficult start to the season, Manchester have now won their last three home games on the spin and will be hoping that they've turned a corner. The Storm have scored 14 goals across those three home wins, dispatching Fife, Dundee and most recently Belfast for six valuable league points.

In the cup, Ryan Finnerty's side desperately need points. They are currently the only team across all three groups still stuck on zero, and with the worst-ranked overall missing out on the Quarter-Finals they risk it being them unless they can put wins on the board and overhaul the total either Fife of Coventry have.

New signing Tayler Thompson is expected to go straight into the lineup.

Sheffield head into the Storm Shelter still looking to become the first team to win 700 EIHL games. They were denied that milestone on Wednesday night when Coventry hit two goals in the final period to take a win at the Utilita Arena. 

Aaron Fox has rotated his goalies throughout most of the early part of the season, and after Barry Brust conceded four on 23 shots on Wednesday night, Rok Stojanovič may well get the start. The Slovene is above 93.6% of shots saved in both league and cup.

Sheffield have won both meetings between the teams so far by a combined score of 13-6.